Speeder
The Speeder is a special mechanic used in every game in the Meteos series. Across all games, activating the Speeder will cause the passage of time to speed up rapidly, causing stacks to fall faster and Meteos to fall at a greater rate and speed, though active items will not exhaust their effects at a greater rate, nor will they count down faster. Meteos will not revert to their match-able forms at a faster rate while the Speeder is active. In addition, several planets interact with the Speeder in nonstandard ways, such as causing stacks to fall slower. Note that, in Meteos Wars, this mechanic is referred to as Speed-Up, though keep in mind the function is the same. In general, it's a good idea to use the Speeder soon after a screen clear to quickly refill the player's bin and get more Meteos sent to opponents in order to build up score. However, as you might expect, the Speeder must be used in moderation; using it at the wrong time can spell disaster for any player for a litany of reasons, such as the screen filling too fast or stacks falling to the ground. In Meteos (DS) In this game, the Speeder takes on the appearance of a greenish disk, with the head of a Geolyte in the middle of the display and a blue ring around the perimeter of the disk. It can be activated by holding the L or R triggers on the DS console, or by touching it with the stylus. In either case, the disk will begin to spin rapidly, and will continue to do so until the Speeder is released. A notable item in the game, the Speeder Lock, will temporarily lock the Speeder into whatever state it was in when the item activates; this can result in the player being made vulnerable due to not being able to activate the Speeder, or forcing them to keep up with the onslaught of Meteos brought by notbeing able to de-activate the speeder. In Meteos Wars In Meteos Wars, the Speeder is renamed to Speed-Up, though the function remains the same. Taking the appearance of two player-colored bars to the sides of the playfield (blue for P1, red for P2), the bars will light up when the player pulls the left or right triggers on the controller - LT or RT. This will cause the player's planet in the background to begin spinning rapidly, slowing down when the player releases the trigger. Using the Speeder will not make Planet Impacts last any more or less time, nor will it make Bombs tick down faster. There is also some lag upon activating/deactivating the Speeder in Wars, rather than the near-instant change in game speed present in previous titles. Nonstandard Interactions In general, when using the Speeder, the following things will happen; *The drop rate and speed at which Meteos fall will increase significantly. *Stacks will fall faster. However, there are a variety of interseting ways some planets interact with the Speeder. More information is present on these planets' articles. Arod On Arod, usage of the Speeder is heavily discouraged; ignition strength drops off significantly and any airborne stacks will quickly return to the ground. Used creatively, however, this can be used to rapidly set up screen-wide stacks of Meteos, making Arod a potent attacking and scoring planet when given practice. Bavoom Perhaps the most notable interaction, using the Speeder on Bavoom will cause airborne stacks to fall at a much slower rate, though the rate at which Meteos fall is treated normally. This can be used to quickly pile Meteos onto a stack, before releasing them all at once in a screen clear; mastery of this mechanic is required to use Bavoom effectively, as it is relatively underpowered without it. Brabbit/Wuud On both of these planets, the rising and falling of stacks is completely unaffected by usage of the Speeder. Though this may not sound terribly useful, creating screenwide stacks and keeping them on the screen for as long as possible allows for massive combos to be made and hundreds of Meteos to be sent at once. This technique is known as Shielding, and makes Brabbit and Wuud much more effective when utilized. Gigagush Not only are stack descents sped up on Gigagush when using the speeder, stack ascents speed up significantly as well, allowing for Meteos to be quickly evacuated from the screen. Category:Gameplay